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Ahh … God bless the great state of Florida. If you’re not familiar: Every year, an event named the Florida Python Challenge pops off in the Sunshine State to help the removal of Burmese pythons that are invading the Florida Everglades and areas around the legendary wetlands. Here in 2024, things are no different and this year’s edition has been going on the last few weeks in South Florida. Well, while this has been going on, one python hunter was shocked when he found a snake taking a ride on an alligator. In the words of Bobby Ruiz, a Wink...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Visitors to Florida’s Everglades National Park were shocked to witness an alligator hauling a massive Burmese python. VIDEO AT LINK................ The snake, which was noticeably larger than the gator, was an unexpected sight for the onlookers. Alligators are carnivorous, "apex" predators that will eat just about anything, including other alligators, wildlife officials say. The Burmese python is an invasive species that has posed unique challenges to Florida's ecosystem. While rare, the snake has become more pervasive in the Everglades. To control the python population, the state launched the Florida Python Challenge in 2013, which allows residents to...

Incredible video of an enormous alligator devouring a python in Florida's Everglades was filmed by a passing cyclist earlier this week. Alison Joslyn, who is an endurance athlete and has a passion for wildlife photography, caught the shocking sight as she was out on her bike, training. 'That's one less python to terrorize the Everglades.' she wrote after posting pictures and video online after cycling through the Shark Valley area of Everglades National Park.

The crashed plane’s wing jetted out of the alligator and python-invested swamps of the Everglades just long enough for the pilot to survive. . OKEECHOBEE, FLORIDA — After nine hours waiting on the wing of his downed plane in the Florida Everglades, a pilot was rescued by Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue. He was the only person aboard. The plane was registered to a flight school in Homestead, Florida but the school called 911 after they lost contact with the pilot. The plane was a single-engine Cessna Skyhawk 172M that began experiencing trouble close to I-75 in South Broward County. A...

In a remarkable feat, a determined Floridian embarked on a mission to hunt down invasive Burmese pythons lurking within the vast expanse of the Big Cypress National Preserve. Little did he know that his unwavering pursuit would lead him to a monumental discovery - the capture of the longest Burmese python ever recorded in the state of Florida, and quite possibly the longest python ever documented. The 22-year-old hunter's wrestling match with the colossal python was captured on camera, showcasing the bravery and determination of the young man. A group of courageous individuals valiantly assisted in subduing the creature, their...

The Florida Python Challenge draws in hundreds of participants each year from as far away as Canada, Belgium and Latvia who are charmed by the prospect of fame and fortune, including up to $30,000 (£23,600) in prize money. Recent Python Challenge winners include a deaf science teacher who bagged a nearly 16ft snake with his bare hands, a father-and-son duo who rapidly despatched 41 snakes and a 19-year-old who said he would use his $10,000 prize to buy better snake-spotting lights for his truck. ..."Once it slithered out in the road, I got to see the massive size of this...

This is the shocking moment a snake hunter wrestled a 19ft Burmese python said to be the longest ever found in the US. The video, taken in the Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida, shows snake hunter Jake Waleri, 22, grab the 125lb python by the neck after it lunges at him with opens jaws. Mr Waleri grapples with the python, which is as long as an adult giraffe is tall, and wrestles it to the ground as onlookers exclaim: 'Oh my God! Let's go!' Another man asks: 'Have you got tape on you, I know you carry tape,' as they...

After nearly five months of waiting, an alarm activated on Michael Cove’s radio, a sign his study was working. To hunt pythons, an invasive predator in the Florida Keys, Cove and fellow researchers have been strapping GPS collars to opossums and raccoons. When one was eaten by a python in September, researchers programmed the device to notify them from within the snake’s stomach.... According to a ScienceDaily study, the number of raccoons, opossums and bobcats in the Everglades all dropped by at least 87 percent between 1997 and 2012. The same study found that marsh and cottontail rabbits and foxes...

A Instagram user known as Kym Clark posted an unsettling video of a Burmese Python crossing the road in Everglades Park last Monday. Clark wrote the python was over 15-feet long In the video caption of her post.. A voice heard in the video states, "This is the biggest snake I have ever seen in my whole life."

It’s official. An invasive Burmese python captured in the Everglades over the weekend has broken the state record measuring 18.9 feet long. The previous record was 18.8 feet long. Ryan Ausburn, a contracted python hunter with the South Florida Water Management District and Kevin “Snakeaholic” Pavlidis, a contracted python hunter with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, captured the monster sized python on Friday, Oct. 2 along the L-28 Tieback Canal about 35 miles west of Miami. On social media, Pavlidis wrote, “On Friday night, we pulled this BEAST of a snake out of waist-deep water in the middle of...

That’s a heck of a meal! The Conservancy of Southwest Florida documented a Burmese python eating a white-tailed deer that weighed more than the python itself. According to The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, which does research on python behavior and habitats in order to help control the population of the invasive species, this is believed to be the largest predator-to-prey ratio documented for the Burmese python, and possibly for any species of python. The findings will be published in the March 2018 issue of Herpetological Review. This snake, an 11-foot female, was found in Collier Seminole State Park on April...

A deadly fight between an alligator and a python has been filmed while the two reptiles fought to the death on a golf course. The giant reptiles were photographed by Dr Richard Nadler while they fought to the death on the 10th hole, the Mirror Online reports. He captioned the footage on Facebook: "Wild day on the 10th hole today! That's a an alligator and a Burmese python entwined. The alligator seems to have the upper hand. (sic)" "As far as I know the gator won. There was no evidence of either animal the next day. We all assume that...

Three hunters caught a 17-foot, 132-pound Burmese python in the Florida Everglades in southern Miami-Dade, a record for the program aimed at curbing the proliferation of the non-native species, according to media reports. The giant snake was caught Friday at Big Cypress National Preserve, according to NBC 6 Miami. “That snake could pretty much kill any full-grown man,” said one of the hunters who caught the python, Jason Leon, to NBC 6. “If that snake was alive right now, it would probably take like three of us to be able to control that snake.” It’s so far the largest snake...

South Florida’s most aggressive invasive species has found a new way to grab headlines: slither atop a research platform in Biscayne Bay. Last month, a kayaker spied a 9-foot Burmese python wrapped around part of a platform more than a half mile offshore in Biscayne National Park usually inhabited by sunning cormorants. The sighting was a first for the park and another worrisome sign that the state’s out-of-control pythons are getting more adept at inhabiting the state’s salty fringes. In September, state wildlife biologists confirmed for the first time that the snakes are now breeding in the Keys.

Burmese python invasive to Everglades. The Burmese python, one of the largest snakes in the world, is running amok in Florida. Well, more like slithering amok. So much so that on Saturday, state officials kick off a month-long competition designed to remove as many of the colossal constrictors from the Everglades as possible. More than 600 people have signed up for the Python Challenge, according to Carli Segelson, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which organized the event. A cash prize goes to the hunter who captures -- dead or alive -- the most Burmese pythons,...

Florida wildlife officials, opening a new front in the war on invasive snakes, are recruiting the general public for "python patrols" that teach them how to identify and even capture some of the hissing, snapping reptiles. "We consider (Burmese pythons) established, which means the hope of removing them is pretty slim," said Jenny Novak, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) biologist, during a recent training session with 20 volunteers in south Florida. "We're in management mode now." ... Florida is a hub for the exotic pet trade and a hot bed of invasive species that have snuck into...

The chance to traipse through Florida's Everglades in search of wild pythons up to 15 feet long has attracted nearly 700 thrill-seekers from throughout the county. The Sunshine State is offering cash prizes in the month-long “Python Challenge,” which begins tomorrow and is aimed at helping to control the exploding population of the non-native Burmese pythons, which have devastated Florida's eco-system. Anyone is eligible for the hunt ... cash prizes of up to $1,500 will be given to hunters who catch the largest and most pythons. The pythons that have nearly eradicated entire native species such as deer, bobcats and...

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK — Water management contractors working in the Florida Everglades have captured and killed a giant Burmese python that had just consumed an adult deer. Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, says workers found the nearly 16-foot-long snake on Thursday.

A huge Burmese python that had just consumed an adult deer was captured and killed in the Everglades Thursday, as South Florida continues to fight a snake infestation that arrived via the exotic pet industry. Contractors for the South Florida Water Management District found the snake on a tree island in western Miami-Dade County, according to the district. It was killed with a shotgun blast. The snake was 15.6 feet long, making it one of the largest ever found in the wild in South Florida, said Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The...

Charles "Jason" Darnell, 33, and Jaren Ashley Hare, 21, face third-degree murder and manslaughter charges stemming from the 2009 death of their daughter...Prosecutors will allege that "Gypsy," a 260 centimeter albino Burmese python, escaped from its glass tank, slithered down the hall and attacked the child in her crib. Darnell told detectives he found the snake in the hallway a day before the attack and had placed it back inside its tank and put a quilt on top of it. He also admitted that the snake had gotten out of the tank - which did not have a lock on...